Esophageal cancer is increasing rapidly in Western countries and has become the seventh-leading cause of cancer-related death. But current technology doesn't allow physicians to determine how the disease will progress or how to best treat it.

David Lubman and colleagues at the University of Michigan developed a technique that identifies proteins in the esophagus. That allows physicians to determine which patients might develop esophageal cancer.

The researchers examined the proteins present in patients with a condition called Barrett metaplasia, in which the internal layers of the esophagus contain abnormal cells that can develop into cancer.

Although the technique needs to be further validated, the researchers said it might have broad potential for identifying tumors.

The study by Lubman, Jia Zhao, Andrew Chang, Chen Li, Kerby Shedden, Dafydd Thomas, David Misek, Arun Prasad Manoharan, Thomas Giordano and David Beer is reported in the journal Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.